Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 19, 1994 TAG: 9411210057
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LEWISBURG, W.VA. LENGTH: Medium
Prosecutors say Tracy Lippard, 23, of Newport News, armed herself with a pistol, hammer and butcher knife and drove 250 miles to West Virginia the morning after she crowned her Miss Williamsburg successor. Authorities saidShe intended to kill Todd Scott's lover and the woman's parents.
Lippard is charged with three counts of attempted murder as well as malicious wounding and weapons violations. She faces up to 39 years in prison if convicted.
She testified Friday that she was tired and upset when she got home late in the evening from the pageant where she had sung a song dedicated to Scott. She said he had reneged on a promise to attend the pageant and that she tried to call Scott, who was not at his home in High Point, N.C.
``I was sick of it because he had being lying to me,'' Lippard said. ``I kept lying there, thinking `Where is Todd?' This was the last lie.''
She drove the next day to Lewisburg because Scott had told her in December about Melissa Scott, who was eight months pregnant with his child at the time. The Scotts married in August.
Scott testified Thursday he had dated his future wife until they broke up in July 1993. He became engaged to another woman last fall, broke that off, then started dating Lippard in December. He said he was never serious about Lippard, the 1993 runner-up to Miss Virginia.
Lippard said she thought Scott might be in West Virginia. She said she wanted to determine which woman he wanted.
``I planned to confront him to ask him questions to find out the truth,'' she said.
She told the Greenbrier County Circuit Court jury that she hid the pistol in the right pocket of her black wool coat, slipped the knife in her right front jeans pocket, and put the lighter fluid in the arm of her coat between her left shoulder and elbow.
Lippard said she knocked on the door of the home of Rodney Weikle, Melissa Scott's father, to see if Scott was inside and told Weikle she was having car trouble. When she saw that Scott wasn't there, she left.
She returned after becoming angry when she thought she saw Scott's car pull into the driveway.
``I was thinking, `This is dumb. Why am I doing this?' Then I thought, `I have to confront him,''' she testified.
When Weikle let her in again, Lippard said she noticed a Brides magazine on the couch. He told her his daughter was going to marry Scott and move to North Carolina.
Lippard said Scott had made the same promises to her. Circuit Judge Charles Lobban asked her how she felt then.
``Betrayed, more than I had been before. I just went through the ceiling,'' she said, but denied she wanted to attack Weikle, who testified earlier that Lippard struck him twice in the head with a hammer.
Earlier Friday, Lippard's mother, Leta, testified she called Scott on Feb. 28 to discuss his relationship with her daughter.
Leta Lippard said she told him, ``Look, Todd, Tracy's upset that you lied to her too much.''
She said Scott appeared to be angry at her, not her daughter.
Leta Lippard said Scott gave her daughter no indication that their relationship was ending. In fact, Tracy Lippard had planned to move to North Carolina the weekend after the alleged incident ``to be close to Todd,'' Leta Lippard testified.
by CNB